Disclaimer : Helloo! This is the next chapter! I still don't own any of the Labyrinth, but that obviously hasn't kept me from writing about it! (skips away to the happy-place)

Author: Yeah. anyway, here is the next chapter! None of you seemed anxious for this to end, so I threw a little twist in the plot. I want to thank everyone for their support, and so for this chapita, everyone gets cookies! (er. maybe not)

"Sarah."

"Get out!"

"You shouldn't have insulted me, Sarah."

"What did you do to me?"

He laughed at the urgency of her voice. "You're asleep," he told her. "You're trapped in a nightmare you can't wake up from."

"I can conquer a nightmare!"

"Fool. I am the Lord of Nightmares. You will find them more vivid and more powerful under my command. It is by my will alone that they are even now kept at bay."

Sarah said nothing. She glared into the darkness all around her. Then she spoke again. "Don't be so arrogant. You are a lord of nothing. You torture me out of spite. Compensation for a minor injury."

She could practically hear his smirk. "Perhaps. But I control you now. You are in my enchanted sleep, and no spell can counter it. Besides, your dear Jareth has fallen into a memory lapse again. He won't be joining you any time soon."

Sarah brushed aside the fear welling in her throat. "You wait," she said. "You can't defeat us forever. The next time Jareth surfaces, he'll have a plan, he'll defeat you."

"Ha! And if he never gets the chance?"

Before Sarah could reply, she was plunged again into a swirling vortex of her nightmares. She fought her fear and revulsion with all of the mental power she had, picturing Jareth in her mind and willing herself to wake up.

* * * * *

Jason stared past the doctor, not quite seeing her. "You can't find anything wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Aside from a slight cut on her tongue, she's perfectly healthy," she said, straightening her glasses. She was almost convinced that the three young people were playing a prank on her. It had happened before.

Gabriel clenched his fists at his sides as his attempt to stay calm failed. "She's unconscious, and nothing you do will wake her up. Of course something's wrong!" The doctor eyed him nervously, hoping that he wouldn't lose his temper to a greater degree.

"If you'd like, you may see her for a few minutes," she said crisply. "While I look up her medical record. There is a monitor next to her bed showing all of her vitals. Why don't you check and see how normal they are?"

Gabriel curled his lip at her retreating back. "How can she tell us nothing's wrong? Little. ," he proceeded to mutter under his breath as the two boys entered the hospital room.

Sarah lay quite still upon the bed. Sitting on the bed next to her and looking completely at home, was Jaelithe.

He looked up and smiled as the door slammed behind the two boys. "Ah," he said sarcastically. "True gentlemen. Come to see the damsel in distress?" He smiled more broadly at the anger inching onto Gabriel's face. "I assure you, the terrible dragon is just one step ahead of you."

Jason was now completely confused. "I'm sorry?" he said. "Who are you? You're not supposed to be here, are you?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Where is Jareth when you need him?" he asked. He could hear Jaelithe snickering, and glared at him angrily. "Well? What happens now?"

Jaelithe raised his eyebrows. The little blips indicating Sarah's heartbeat became more rapid. She drew a sharp breath, but remained asleep. Jason's eyes widened, and Gabriel turned exactly one shade paler. Jaelithe grinned maliciously.

"You walk out of here, and Sarah gets to live," Jaelithe said. "You see, I'm not really looking forward to your chasing me around, trying to get me to send Jareth back to the castle, trying to get me to leave Sarah alone, trying to get me to play nice with you little kids. The whole reason I started playing with little Sarah in the first place was to see if she would notice that Jareth had gone. I loved the look on her face when she saw that the Labyrinth was dying.

"But then you had to come along, and you had to plot out clever little schemes to trick me into sending little Jarey-poo back to his realm. It insults me that you think you could defeat me with Jareth in such a weakened state. So now little Sarah will just have to suffer until you can leave me alone."

"Leave you alone?!" Gabriel shouted. "You started to bother us!"

"Um, excuse me," Jason said in a very annoyed tone. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and it probably has nothing to do with me, but It sounds as though most of your argument is with this Jareth person, so I think you can leave Sarah out of this."

"You idiot!" Gabriel shouted at him. He kept his voice raised in the hopes that a nurse would come, though it seemed unlikely. "You don't even know who that is!"

Jason shrugged, spreading his arms in a gesture of helplessness. "Well, then, who is he?" Jason asked. Jaelithe, who had been snickering to himself the entire time, burst into laughter. He calmed himself and grinned evilly as he pointed an accusing finger at Jason.

"You are."

With a flash of golden light, Jaelithe disappeared, a single black feather drifting down to rest upon Sarah's bed as her pulse returned to normal.

* * * * *

Jason lay awake, staring at his ceiling. Gabriel had neither denied nor agreed to the nightmare lord's statement. Jason had trouble believing it was true, and denied it over and over again in his mind. However, he could not help wondering if there was more truth in those words than he gave them credit for.

He brushed the thought hastily aside as he sat up. He would go to the hospital and be with Sarah. Whether or not he was this Jareth person, he had to protect her from that evil boy. He got dressed, and was at the door when he thought about Gabriel. He may want to guard Sarah as well. But Jason shook his head and left for the hospital alone.

When he reached it, the nurses turned him away. He did not tell them the story of the mysterious boy that could disappear in a flash of gold light. Instead, he tried to make himself as pitiful and sincere as possible. He was soon sitting in a chair, staring at Sarah's shape under the covers.

He could tell that he was in for a restless night.

Author: Well, that was the chapter. I realize that it was pretty slow and not much happened, and I'm sorry. I'll try to make the next one better, okay? Until then, thank you and Ja Ne!